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My poor, poor neglected blog! I have started and not finished so many posts over the past few months! Bloggers new layout absolutely frustrated me and so many of them did not get posted! I’ll try to do a recap over the next few days. If I have any followers left I’d be shocked! But if you’re still out there thanks for sticking with me! The biggest announcement we have to make is…

HE’S HERE!!!!

Elijah Joseph Zike Fischer joined our family 1 month premature on August 4, 2012 at 2:29 in the afternoon. He was 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Not bad for a premie, huh!?! If he’d stuck around to bake another 30 days he’d have been a whopper!!! A lot people ask about his name. Well, we thought we’d keep the prophet theme going by using Elijah. I mean, we already have a Jonah and a Micah, why not add another!?! Steven wanted him to have a saints name for a middle name, but then we also wanted to use my mom’s maiden name so this little bitty guy has two middle names, Joseph (St. Joseph is also the patron Saint of our Parish.) and Zike (my mom’s maiden name). My mom tells everyone his name is bigger than he is! It is, but I love it! It’s unique and has a lot of meaning!

My water broke at 4:30 in the morning. I woke up thinking I’d peed the bed! lol! Weirdest. Feeling. Ever!! With my other labors and deliveries I’d always had an epidural by the time my water broke or my doctors broke it. Never had it broken on it’s own before contractions had even started. We went to the hospital where they confirmed my water had indeed broken. They got us a room, started fluids, gave me antibiotics since he was coming early (just in case) After a few hours they started Pitocin to get things really kicking!! (My contractions had stalled at 2-3 minutes apart.) An hour later I was begging for an epidural,which in the end was pointless because by the time it got time to push the epi had worn off and there wasn’t time to redose it. So I tell everyone I had an epidural labor and a natural delivery. I felt EVERYTHING!!! But in the end it was a blessing in disguise.

Somewhere in the course of labor and delivery Eli got his cord wrapped around his neck. We don’t know how long it was there. But since my epi had worn off my pushing was much more effective. 3 pushes and he was there, purple and silent. My heart froze when he didn’t come out kicking and screaming. His pulse was very faint and he wasn’t breathing. They called for backup, especially neonatal nurses and/or doctors. Within seconds we had 7 nurses in our room, suctioning, giving him compressions, trying to get him to cry. If I had known then how close we got to loosing him I don’t know that I could have stayed as calm as I did.

Steven said he was so torn over whether he should be next to me or over by him. He stayed by Eli’s side the whole time. It was hard watching the concern on his face since he was closer to the action than I was.At 3 minutes Eli’s Apgar was a 1. Finally he let out a small, very weak cry. I felt my heart skip a beat and I started crying as I realized he was fighting his way back. He kept improving from there. His 5 minute Apgar was an 8.

My nurse the next day (who was awesome and who’s daughter ended up being in Brianna’s 2ND GRADE class this year…how ironic is that?!?!) told us later that Eli’s delivery was what they call a code Brown, because it makes everyone in the room crap themselves!

It felt like forever before anyone got to hold him. He had to be suctioned quite a few times throughout the day to remove gunk from his lungs. His respiration was all over the place. He seemed quite good at holding his breath! He was probably almost an hour old before they felt comfortable enough to wrap him up and bring him to me. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh when they handed him to me. It felt like I was holding a miracle. A miracle who looked just like Micah! Everyone kept saying it, but when I actually had him in my arms and got to investigate his nose and lips and eyes and ears and his fuzzy head all I could say was “He looks just like Micah!” Some fun facts for you…Micah was 6 pounds 2 ounces, he was 20.5 inches long and was born at 2:19 in the afternoon! They really wanted to be twins..they just separated it out three years so they wouldn’t kill me! lol!

His first feeding he completely spit back up because of all the gunk he had. He stayed in our room the first night but by day 2 he was transferred to the NICU for about 15 hours. He was having trouble with his breathing. It was very rapid and irregular. He also wasn’t eating very well and still hadn’t passed any of his merconium. I had to pump and make the long trek down the hall to the NICU every 3 hours. We had to use an S&S tube taped to my breast to teach him how to eat. It was tedious, and I was exhausted but after a while he got the hang of it. Finally he passed his merconium (I never thought I’d rejoice so much over a poop!! lol) and from that moment on it seemed like he made a huge rally!

So far he is doing fantastically! In the past 6 weeks he has gained around 2 pounds. He is eating like a champ. He poops like a pro (hehe). And his breathing is perfect (although he still holds it a little longer than I’d like!)! He is such a sweet, mild mannered baby. He loves to snuggle, which makes it hard to get things done sometimes. But when I start to get frustrated about the dishes piling up in the sink, or the laundry overflowing out of the baskets, I remember how close we got to loosing him. Then I snuggle him a little closer, breathe in his sweet baby smell, and send up a pray of thanksgiving to God for his sweet mercies!

We are so grateful to have Eli here in our family. It feels so complete with him here. Everyone always says when you’re done you’ll know. Well, I don’t know about Steven but I feel like our family is right where we are supposed to be…4 beautiful blessings here in our arms, and one special angel watching and waiting on us in Heaven. God is so good!

So, now you’ve met our little Elijah Joseph Zike! Isn’t he absolutely adorable!??! We’re pretty in love! My next goal is to update you on the other kids who, bytheway, have adjusted beautifully to Eli’s arrival into our family. They have had a very busy last few months themselves and I want to share what they’ve been up to! So stay tuned!